Condition: An Ontario bakery had secured a large contract with a multinational food company. One of the stipulations of the contract was that the bakery had to introduce a program for lint and fiber control within the plant. Options included a system using lint rollers or a food-grade air shower.
Decision: Costing and feasibility studies were conducted for both options and the bakery decided to install two air showers: a single-person shower between the small office and the plant (where traffic was very limited), and an air-tunnel between the employee change-rooms and the plant (where volume was high and continuous).
Office-Plant Shower
The corridor between the office and the plant was very narrow, with production area immediately beyond the corridor, on the other side of the block wall, and on the right side, an insulated wall with a walk-in cooler on the other side.
To compound things, there was very limited headroom, leaving few options for access to the HEPA filter and fan within the air shower.
A right-angle air shower was selected with low-profile top-mounted filter & fan cabinet, with ceiling access to the filter and fan section from within the air shower.
To facilitate electrical and wiring, the electrical panel & disconnect was positioned above the door on the office side of the shower (as visible at left). A factory programmed PLC controller was set to a 30-second air shower, but this is easily changed by the customer if needed.
As you can see from the picture left, it was a very tight fit for this air shower, but there is good access to the HEPA filter, the fan/motor assembly and the electrical panel, so the air shower is 100% serviceable for regular PM’s.
Plant Personnel Air Tunnel:
For the staff entry, space was also very limited, with block-walls on both sides and A/C equipment and ductwork located right above the drop ceiling tile.
SELECTION: A 10’ long air-tunnel was selected, with the fan/motor cabinet located on the floor adjacent to the tunnel. One of the block walls was removed and the tunnel was delivered in sections for site assembly.
The tunnel was constructed of 2x 5’ long sections with 2x fan/motor cabinets located on the right side of the tunnel, within the mens’ changeroom. Fan/motor, electrical panel and filter access is easily accessible from within the adjacent room (not shown).
Programming
The air tunnel is activated by a motion sensor located above the entry door. Unlike the single-person shower, which has interlocked doors, the air tunnel permits continuous entry of plant personnel.
Personnel are trained to walk slowly and deliberately thru the shower to ensure adequate contaminant blow-off. The shower shuts off 30-seconds after the last detection of the motion sensor.
Industry Air Sales (IAS) works with only the best names in cleanroom equipment, selecting the equipment and supplier that best suits your individual needs.
Please contact one of the cleanroom specialists at IAS to assist you with air shower or misting shower requirements for your Canadian GMP facility.
